


‘til we find our way in the dark

by petals



Category: One Direction (Band), Zayn Malik (Musician)
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - High School, Friends to Lovers, M/M, Matchmaker Niall, Truth or Dare
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-31
Updated: 2016-01-31
Packaged: 2018-05-09 21:25:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5555882
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/petals/pseuds/petals
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>“Why not Zayn,” Harry laughs, like it’s obvious. And it’s not, because if it were Louis wouldn't be asking these idiots.</em><br/><em>“Again, but why Zayn?”</em><br/><em>“Who cares,” Zayn laughs, slinging his arm around Louis’ shoulder and jostling him a bit. “It’s nothing to worry about.”</em><br/><em>“But—“</em><br/><em>“No, man. Come on, she’s not worried about you, so just let it go, yeah?”</em><br/><em>Louis nods, picking bits of burnt cheese off his pizza crust. He supposes that Zayn is right; he should just let it go. Eleanor obviously doesn’t want to date him, and she was obviously looking for an excuse, so it’s fine. He can stop worrying about it…really, he can.</em><br/> <br/>Or the one where Louis gets rejected by a girl who thinks he's dating his best friend, one game of truth or dare later and he is...more or less.</p>
            </blockquote>





	‘til we find our way in the dark

**Author's Note:**

  * For [1DE3shipper](https://archiveofourown.org/users/1DE3shipper/gifts).



> Pinch hit that I'm very excited about. In all my years of fandom I've never tried a truth or dare fic, so thank you 1DE3shipper for the opportunity! I hope you enjoy <3
> 
> All remaining mistakes are my own. And of course, standard disclaimer of the fact that I don't know them, don't own them, and please don't put this on any other site!

Eleanor blinks and shifts uncomfortably, adjusting her bag on her shoulder. Louis braces himself for the worst. There was the teeniest moment where he thought he wasn’t embarrassing himself, but the sympathetic – and slightly uncomfortable – smile on her face is telling him otherwise.

“Louis, I’m really flattered that you’ve asked me out, honestly, but…” She bites down on her lip, shiny red lip-gloss smearing a bit as she does it. “I mean, I really am flattered, you’re cute and all, and I might have said yes if…you know.” She glances down the school hallway and Louis follows her gaze, trying to find out if she’s just avoiding looking at him. The only other person in the hallway is Zayn, leaning up against his locker and looking effortlessly cool. “Won’t Zayn mind?”

Louis frowns, head snapping back to look at her in confusion. “Why would he mind? Mind what?”

“I’m sorry, Louis,” she says apologetically, biting down on her bottom lip again. She shoves her bag higher up on her shoulder, squeezing his arm sympathetically as she wanders off.

Louis stares at the place where she was standing at, at the chipping green paint on the lockers and wondering what the hell just happened. Or well, no. He does know that he was just rejected by one of the prettiest girls in school. But he doesn’t understand why. She had mentioned Zayn, mentioned something about him minding and that’s where…well, that’s where things get a bit, or a lot confusing for him.

He shuffles down the hall awkwardly, trying to figure out what it all means.

An arm slings around his shoulder as he gets closer, a familiar body pressed against his side and a familiar scent clouding his senses, expensive cologne and cigarettes smoked in the school bathroom.

“How’d it go?” Zayn asks and Louis frowns, because he really doesn’t know.

>>>>

It’s the middle of lunch and Louis still doesn’t understand what Eleanor meant when she asked if Zayn would mind. It’s just such an odd statement that he can’t let it go, not like Louis is known for his ability to forget about things or to let them slide, because he’s not. But still, this feels like something he should focus on, because it’s strange how she rejected him because of his best friend.

“If she doesn’t like me then she should have just said that,” Louis says to no one in particular. He’s been ranting about the subject since Zayn asked him how it went fifteen minutes ago, and all while they grabbed their pizza – if one can call the square mess on his plate pizza – and then more when he sat down so that Harry, Niall, and Liam can hear the nonsense excuse for why Eleanor doesn’t want to go out with him. And that’s fine, totally cool if she just doesn’t like him, but now he’s all confused and he doesn’t understand why. “I don’t understand why she had to bring Zayn into this.”

Niall snorts as he takes a bite of his pizza, mumbling something into the crust that Louis can’t hear but he’s sure it’s rude, so he glares.

“I’m being serious, _Neil,_ and if you can’t help then hush.”

“I didn’t say anything!”

“You didn’t need to, I saw it in your eyes.”

“Obviously she was worried about something,” Liam chimes in, and Louis turns to look at him, intrigued. “I’m not saying what, I’m just saying it’s obvious that she was concerned.”

“But why Zayn?”

“Why not Zayn,” Harry laughs, like it’s obvious. And it’s not, because if it were Louis wouldn't be asking these idiots.

“Again, but why Zayn?”

“Who cares,” Zayn laughs, slinging his arm around Louis’ shoulder and jostling him a bit. “It’s nothing to worry about.”

“But—“

“No, man. Come on, she’s not worried about you, so just let it go, yeah?”  


Louis nods, picking bits of burnt cheese off his pizza crust. He supposes that Zayn is right; he should just let it go. Eleanor obviously doesn’t want to date him, and she was obviously looking for an excuse, so it’s fine. He can stop worrying about it…really, he can.

>>>>

Louis can’t. He can’t let it go. He worries about it a lot, about what it might mean. It keeps him up at night, not in the way that he can’t sleep, but just in the way that he’ll think about it when he’s pretending to sleep. And it starts getting annoying the more he thinks about it, the more he worries and wonders what Eleanor meant. He tried asking his mom, but the soft sigh and the “oh, sweetheart” and gentle stroke of her hand along his cheek didn’t really tell him much. Well, no. It did tell him that the answer to this should all be obvious and that he has no excuse for not understanding what Eleanor meant.

So Louis decides to do an experiment…of sorts. It’s not his best idea, nor is it one that he’s proud of but he figures pride can take a backseat to scientific research. Einstein would be proud, he reckons, to know that Louis Tomlinson is devoted to some kind of study this much. If not Einstein then definitely his science teacher, who hasn’t gotten Louis to do an assignment in ages. But whatever, that’s beside the point. The point is that Louis has an idea.

Again, it’s not his best idea. He’s definitely had better ones, but he can’t see why asking out several people he really would like to take on a date could hurt anything.

Except that it can hurt a lot of things, like his pride.

He starts with Danielle, who gives him the same sympathetic smile as Eleanor when she says that Zayn’s far too nice of a guy to do that too. And whatever, Louis still doesn’t know what that means, but he’s seen her and Eleanor talking before so she’s probably biased in opinion. The wrong kind of person to be asking, obviously, if he wants actual results. Then he tries another named Briana and Tom and Dylan and all of them say the same thing. Well, not exactly the same thing, but they all mention Zayn, and Louis doesn’t get it. He doesn’t get it.

That is until Niall explains it to him. Niall laughs as Louis voices his confusion, laughs with his head thrown back like it’s the best thing he’s ever heard. And Louis thinks, rude! He doesn’t make comments when Niall doesn’t understand things…okay, so he doesn’t always make comments. Which he should, he thinks.

“I’m saying that it’s obvious and that you’re an idiot,” Niall tells him, zooming past Louis on the virtual racetrack on his TV screen. Louis curses him and presses harder on the button, because that’ll make him go faster.

“Okay, well, it’s not obvious to me.”

“Of course it’s not, you’re an idiot.”

“Well if you’re so smart then enlighten me, wise one.”

Niall snorts and Louis rams his car into Niall’s, hooting in victory when his car zips by Niall’s.

“All right, fine,” Niall says, pausing the game. Louis curses and glares, but if it’ll get Niall to start talking then fine, he can wait to destroy Niall on the game. “Listen, no one wants to go out with you because they all think you’re dating Zayn.”

Louis can feel his face scrunch up in confusion, because why? Why would anyone think that? “I’m not dating Zayn.”

“Yeah, right. See, I know that…sometimes. Sometimes I know that.”

“What the hell do you mean by sometimes?”

“I mean…well, sometimes it’s hard. You’re constantly together, you both hang all over each other, and I mean, your mom practically has his pictures hanging up on the walls.”

“One picture,” Louis shouts, holding up his index finger for emphasis. “One picture. She has one picture of him and it’s not hanging up, it’s sitting on a little table.”

“A little table that has pictures of all of your family. None of Lottie’s friends are on that table.”

“Lottie’s friends suck.”

Niall rolls his eyes, running his fingers through his fading blond hair. “That’s…whatever. I don’t know what to say that,” Niall says, shrugging. “But I will say that it’s weird, okay. My mom doesn’t have any of your pictures up on the wall, so like…yeah, it’s weird; people don’t do that, Louis.”

Louis shrugs and fiddles with the controller, twisting the thumb sticks around idly. Niall does have a point, and even he knows that the picture is a bit odd. Louis never had a problem with the ones she keeps taped to the fridge and to the garage door, but he did tell his mother that it was overkill to frame one of Zayn’s school pictures and put it on the family table, a table his mother uses specifically for pictures of Louis and his siblings and his grandparents, a couple of his parents on there as well. So it’s weird, yeah, but Louis never really thought of it as a sign that they’re dating, or that people assumed that about them.

“Everyone thinks we’re dating?” Louis asks, biting down on his bottom lip.

Niall sighs and nods, shrugging when Louis sighs heavily. “It’s not like we all talk about it behind your back or anything, but it’s there, you know. People ask me sometimes, about you two, and I tell them, but they don’t really believe me. And sometimes I don’t really believe it, even though I know you’re not.”

“Does Zayn know about this?”

“Yeah, I reckon he does,” Niall nods, and Louis thinks, huh. Well, it would have been nice if someone had clued him in before he embarrassed himself in front of every single person that he thinks is cute.

>>>>

Louis realizes, after several hours of thinking about it, that he can see why half the school would think that. Or well, all of the school, apparently. He can understand why people would think that they’re in a relationship, even though they’re not. They do spend all their time together, they do plan their schedules together so that they can have the most classes together, and Zayn does wait for him on the bleachers while Louis has soccer practice. And that’s not totally unheard of, other people have friends watch practice, maybe not everyday, but it happens.

And Zayn does make it to every game, arriving with and sitting next to Louis’ family, helping the twins hold up a handmade signing declaring Louis number one on the field. And that’s…well, maybe people could see relationship out of that. If they’re trying to find reasons to see them as together, or something like that.

Louis doesn’t know. He tries not to assume people are dating every single person that they spend a reasonable amount of time with, so he’s only guessing why people think this. He doesn’t know, can’t know for sure unless he interviews people. Which that’s not a bad…no, definitely a bad idea. He’s not going to run up to everyone and ask why they’d assume he’s dating Zayn. It would only give them more ammunition to work with. And apparently they already have a lot, so it’s probably best he doesn't add on to the seemingly impossibly long list.

“What’d you get for question thirteen?”

Louis blinks and realizes that he’s been thinking too hard about dating Zayn that he hasn’t actually been doing the history assignment that he and Zayn set out to do. And that’s his bad, obviously. Or Eleanor’s, since she started all this.

“Um, I’m not there yet,” Louis answers, quickly jotting down his name and the date so he can at least say that he’s done something besides stare blankly at the assignment. “What does it want to know?”

“If you’re not there yet then you won’t know. There’s a passage we have to read, some general’s recollection of what happened on the battlefield, I don’t know. What question are you on?” Zayn asks and Louis curls his paper inwards, just in case Zayn somehow can see through his knees.

“Um…”

Zayn’s pencil drops and he turns his head slowly to look at Louis, hazel eyes shining in the dim light of Louis’ room. He really needs to ask his dad for new light bulbs. “What does ‘um’ mean?”

“Um. It means um.”

“Louis, what problem are you on?”

“The first one,” Louis mutters, wincing when Zayn’s expression takes on one of outrage. “I was thinking about something. I got distracted.”

“For an hour?”

“It’s been an hour?” Louis asks, shocked as he pats around on his bed, trying to find his phone so that he can confirm what Zayn’s just told him. An hour, huh. Well, there’s an hour of his life wasted wondering if he’s really in a relationship with his best friend and he just doesn’t know it. Or no, that’s not what he was thinking about, was it? “I didn’t realize it had been that long.”

“Yeah? Care to share with the class what you were thinking about?” Zayn asks, an amused smirk on his face as he taps his pencil against Louis’ shin, waiting, and just the slightest bit impatient.

Louis looks at him and sighs, running his fingers through his hair. There’s really no way to tell Zayn what he’s been thinking about without doing one of two things. One, he can tell Zayn and freak him out, make him worry about their friendship, make him think about things a little bit more. Almost like he’s second-guessing everything, wondering if every action he commits to is going to give people the wrong idea. Or two, maybe Zayn will start to question Louis’ feelings, start to wonder if Louis is thinking about their friendship the same way as everyone else is. Or if Louis is thinking about Zayn in that way, in any way besides as a best friend, in the way that would make Louis believe they’re dating, that they’re more than just best friends.

And Louis knows that they’re friends, knows that’s where the boundaries lie. But…well, if he thinks about it, if he squints at it, then he can see why everyone thinks that. And truth be told, Louis could do worse in terms of boyfriends that he doesn’t actually have. Zayn is, and this is undisputed, Louis thinks, one of the more attractive boys at school. Louis would be lucky to have him. And Zayn would be lucky to have Louis, he’s a catch, he’s a decent—more than decent guy.

But that’s not hidden feelings talking, that’s cold, hard facts. And with the cold, hard facts, Louis forces himself to admit that yes, Zayn is attractive. And not just in the obvious sort of way, because even if his personality is shit – which it’s not – he’d still be pretty. But there are other things that make Zayn attractive, like the way he cares about the people around him, fiercely and unconditionally. Or how he spends his Sunday afternoons with his mom helping his grandma, cleaning her house and helping prepare meals for her throughout the week. But Zayn’ll help anyone; it’s one of Louis’ favorite qualities about him. He’ll help Niall with his English homework late at night, staying up later than he should just to make sure the other boy gets it. And he’ll help Liam with his geography, and help Harry through a broken heart when he’s put it in the wrong hands.

And then there’s Louis, who Zayn has helped more times than Louis can count. Like when he spent every day after school for nearly three weeks helping Louis prepare for his soccer tryouts, or when Louis was sick and he brought some of his mom’s famous soup and did some of his history homework, or all the times he’s read the books assigned to them in English out loud because he knew that Louis wasn’t going to read them on his own.

Zayn’s a good person, the best person. And Louis isn’t blind to any of this. He knows that Zayn’s the greatest person he could ever hope to be with, the greatest person that anyone could assume he was with. That’ll never change, not as long as Louis is alive, he’s sure. And part of him…well, part of him, if he digs deep enough, if he thinks hard enough, and if he digs through his mind enough can admit that yeah, being with Zayn wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world. And he certainly wouldn’t argue if Zayn were to say that yeah, forget what he wants, they’re dating.

And huh. That’s an interesting thought. That—well, that hadn’t crossed his mind until now.

“Do you think you can tell me tonight, or are you going to keep spacing out?” Zayn asks, startling Louis when he smacks the reflex in his knee with his pencil. “Seriously, what’s going on with you tonight?”

“Nothing,” Louis defends, kicking his knee out and knocking the pencil out of Zayn’s hands. That hurts, thank you very much. “I’ve just been…thinking.”

“So you keep saying, but what about?”

“Just about… I don’t know. It’s dumb.”

“So something dumb has you staring at the wall for that long? I don’t buy it. What are you thinking about?”

Louis sighs and sits up, folding his legs under his body and slouching forward so that he can rest his elbows on his knees. “It’s about why Eleanor wouldn’t go out with me. Well, not just Eleanor, but about a few people, I suppose.”

“Oh god,” Zayn laughs, sliding his books off his lap. “You’re really not thinking about that again.”

“I am, yeah.”

“Why? There’s nothing to it.”

“Not according to Niall.”

“Niall spews a lot of shit.”

“He reckons that nobody wants to date me because they think I’m dating you.”

“Okay,” Zayn says, brows pinched together in confusion. “I mean, yeah. Probably. Although, it would make the most sense if they would just talk to you about it, but whatever, that’s their choice, I guess.”

“Wait,” Louis says, holding up his hand to silence Zayn as he sits up a little straighter. “What do you mean probably? Did you know about this?”

“I knew that’s what people thought about us, yeah.”

“And you didn’t think to like, I don’t know, correct them?”

“There’s literally only so many ways you can say, ‘no, I am not dating Louis’ and have everyone not believe you before you just give up on the whole, getting people to stop spreading false shit idea.”

“Okay,” Louis says, blinking, because this isn’t right. How could Zayn just let this happen? How can he just be so blasé about it? “You knew?”

“Yes, we’ve established that,” Zayn sighs.

“And you didn’t care?”

“Established that as well.”

“But why?”

Zayn blinks at this, looking at Louis then away then back to him again. He shrugs and Louis waits, watching as Zayn tries to piece together something in his head. “I don’t see what’s so offensive about it that I should care.”

“But it’s not true.”

“And? That doesn't mean people aren’t going to talk about it.”

“Right,” Louis mumbles, biting down on his bottom lip as he leans back against the bed frame once more, nodding.

He gets what Zayn’s saying, how there really isn’t any point in wasting perfectly good energy on false rumors that don’t hurt anyone. They haven’t hurt Zayn, he doesn’t seem to be affected by them in anyway. Louis hasn’t been hurt by them, and aside from his ability to ask other people out, there really isn’t anything about the rumors that bother him.

But Louis thinks there’s more to it than that, thinks that maybe Zayn just doesn’t care because of other reasons, reasons that Louis himself is trying to figure out.

>>>>

“I’m not surprised that Zayn doesn’t care.”

“How?” Louis asks, one brow raised as he looks at Liam.

Liam shrugs, leaning forward to wrap his shin-guards around his leg. “It just seems like a very Zayn thing, doesn’t it? To not care about the fact that people are talking about him.”

“Well, obviously that. But like, us dating…isn’t that a little weird?”

“Not really,” Liam says, still looking down towards the ground as he tugs a sock on. He’s engrossed in getting ready for practice, unlike Louis who is sitting next to him in his boxers still, biting down on his bottom lip as he thinks about this. “You kind of already act like you’re dating, wouldn’t hurt to give it a shot, if the feelings are there.”

“Are you telling me that I have feelings for Zayn?”

“No.”

“That Zayn has feelings for me?”

Liam sighs, flicking a quick glance over his shoulder towards Louis before he stares back down at the ground. “I think that’s something you’d have to figure out for yourself, isn’t it?”

So Louis does.

Or well, not necessarily. See, figuring it out on his own would mean talking to Zayn about it, asking him what his feelings are. And Louis doesn’t want to give him the wrong impression, because he doesn’t have feelings for Zayn. Or he might, if he sat down and thought about it. But he’s not going to do that, so he takes the next logical step.

The next logical step meaning questioning all of his friends like it’s a police interrogation, bright light shining down on them as the pressure gets to them, forcing them to crack and spill all their secrets. Or at least the secret that Louis wants to know.

“Why are you asking me?” Harry asks, looking at Louis skeptically, like he thinks Louis is up to no good. And rude, he’s up to the greater good…or whatever. Something like that.

“I’m just curious, is all,” Louis says, inspecting the cracking paint on the locker next to Harry’s.

“Well, I don’t think this is the kind of thing that you should ask me, for one thing. I think that you should talk to Zayn. They’re his feelings, and whatever they are, he has the right to tell you them himself.”

“See, that’s an interesting point. And I can see what you mean by that, of course I can. But you’re here and I’m asking you, so entertain me and you know, answer the question.”

“I don’t have a right to do that, Louis.”

“Just take a guess.”

“I don’t have the authority to do that either.”

“Just tell me what your gut is saying.”

“It’s saying that you should ask Zayn, since I’m sure he’d tell you either way.”

Louis glares at him, slamming Harry’s locker closed before he grab any of his books before he stalks off down the hall, muttering curses under his breath. Screw Harry Styles and his damn morals. And deep down Louis knew that he would be a tough nut to crack, too invested in his own peace bullshit that he won’t give Louis something, even just a tiny little bit of something to help him on his journey to find the truth.

So forget about Harry, Louis thinks, he’ll find Niall. Niall’s the only one who told him why Eleanor and half the school, apparently, wouldn’t go out with him. And so really, Niall’s the only one of Louis’ friends that he likes anymore. Niall has been promoted from best friend to best-er friend, a worthy title for a worthy person, in Louis’ opinion.

“I don’t know,” Niall says, shrugging as he pours his miso onto his rice. “I know this isn’t how you’re supposed to eat it, but it’s actually better this way, in case you were wondering.”

“I wasn’t actually, but good to know,” Louis mumbles, watching in horror as Niall takes a bite. “Zayn told you that’s now how you’re supposed to do it.”

“Yeah, I know that, but like I said, it’s better this way,” Niall says with an air of finality to his words. “And besides, Zayn says a lot of things, that doesn’t mean I listen to all of them.”

“What kind of things does he say?” Louis asks, pretending to inspect his water, like he really doesn’t care about the answer to this question. “Like, does he talk about his feelings with you?”

“Sometimes, yeah. But I don’t know about his feelings for you.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Positive.”

“Do you really not know, or are you just saying that?”

“Bit of both, I suppose.”

“What does that mean?”

Niall sighs, grabbing his glass of water and taking a few long, heavy pulls out of the straw before he shrugs. “I don’t know, man. He’s never actually said anything to me.”

“But you have your suspicions?”

“Don’t we all?”

“I don’t know,” Louis cries out, resisting the urge to grab the ends of the table and shake it to emphasize the fact that he really doesn’t know. And that he doesn't even know why he wants to know, since a few days ago he wouldn’t have cared. But now, now Louis wants to know it all in a way that he doesn’t really understand.

Days ago, Louis wouldn’t have ever thought about any of this. But suddenly, it feels like something inside of him has opened up and it’s clawing away at him, desperately wanting to know the truth about all of this, about his friendship with Zayn and if it’s more than what he thought was.

“I just want to know,” Louis says, because he’s been quiet for several minutes and Niall’s giving him that look, the patient one that tells him that he’s listening, that he’ll do anything and everything he can to make things better, to make them easier for Louis. “Zayn said he knew that people thought we were dating.”

“I figured he knew that part of it.”

“And he didn’t seem to care.”

“Figure that one as well.”

“And he said that he tried to get them, whoever them is, to understand that we’re not dating, that we’re just friends, but no one believed him.”

“Yeah, well. Maybe it’s not so much that they don’t believe it, but more like—maybe it’s more like, okay,” Niall sighs, running his fingers through his hair, thin lips pulled in a tight line as he thinks. “Maybe it’s not that they don’t believe you, but more so that they believe it’s going to happen…um, eventually.”

Louis cocks his head to the side, frowning in confusion. “But why would they think it’s going to happen eventually?”

“Okay, right. You know in those movies, the ones your mom loves watching with Fizz and Lott, the ones where the guy and girl are just friends, totally just friends, even date other people. Only, there’s someone else in the movie that’s constantly accusing them of liking their best friend, because everyone sees it except for them,” Niall explains and Louis nods, because he doesn’t know the exact movie but this sounds like something his mom and sisters would enjoy. “And then in the end they get to together finally, much to everyone’s relief?”

“Yeah, sure. I guess.”

“Right, that’s your and Zayn’s life.”

Louis opens his mouth to reply and then closes it promptly, his frown deepening as he lets Niall’s words sink in. Huh. Louis’ not sure what’s more shocking, the fact that everyone in Louis’ life – his mother included, probably – thinks that’s going to be his life, or the fact that he’s not shocked at all by it. It sort of makes sense, in a way. And that’s maybe the most shocking, yeah, definitely the most shocking piece of information that he’s gotten this week, that he’s not surprised by his fate. In fact, part of him feels like he’s been waiting for it, waiting for the slow, lazy transition of their relationship together, waiting for the soft touches and lazy kisses that were bound to come, bound to weave their way into the blurry grey lines of their friendship.

“So what do we do?”

Niall’s grin is quick and almost manic, spreading across his face quickly and sharply. “I have an idea.”

>>>>

So Niall’s ideas, in Louis’ opinion, are pretty juvenile. Louis can’t comment on the effective just yet, but sitting in a circle in his bedroom, the five of them dressed down to their pajamas with a case of beer stolen from Niall’s older brother, seems pretty juvenile. But Louis is pretty juvenile himself, so maybe it is the best idea that anyone could come up with, a game of truth or dare slash sleepover while Niall’s parents are out of town. He could have thrown a party, could have been an actual, normal teenager, but instead they’re here, having a sleepover like they’re thirteen all over again.

“Should we discuss the rules?” Liam asks, looking around the group.

Louis snorts and Niall laughs, shaking his head.

“I think everyone knows the rules, Li,” Harry comments, rolling onto his stomach and resting on his elbows so he can see everyone. “They’re kind of in the title, I think.”

“Not everyone,” Liam comments, turning to glare at Louis. And honestly, put glue in someone’s hat once and become public enemy number one. Louis doesn’t deserve this. “And since not everyone understands the rules, I think it should go without saying that we shouldn’t do something that could cause bodily harm.”

“What about hurting someone’s pride?” Louis asks and Harry nods, like that’s a valid point.

“Yeah, just don’t make anyone cry this time,” Zayn says, nudging Louis with his knee.

“I didn’t make Harry cry.”

“Hey, I didn’t cry.”

“I think it was Liam that cried, actually.”

“All right,” Liam sighs, putting an end to this before they can really get started, because the last time they played truth or dare was months ago, nearly a year, if Louis remembers correctly, and they’ve been arguing since then about who cried and who made them cry ever since. And Louis still maintains that he didn’t make anyone cry, but the jury is still out on whether or not it was Harry or Liam, because both of them are known to cry if you get them at the right time. Really it just depends on circumstance, and Liam’s crying isn’t his fault, he inherited it from his mother, who is known to cry at the drop of a hat. So definitely not Louis’ fault. But possibly Karen Payne’s fault and whatever crying gene she’s passed on to her offspring, if Louis were to guess the actual cause of the crying that everyone keeps talking about.

“All right, Liam since you want to make the rules, you’re first. Truth or dare.”

Liam sighs. “Truth.”

“Boring,” Niall shouts, cackling as he takes another pull of his beer.

“Well forgive me, now give me a truth, Tomlinson.”

“We’ll start off easy, have you ever been skinny dipping?”

Niall cackles from across from him and out of the corner of his he sees Zayn crack a smile, because they’ve been speculating for weeks now about if the stories are true. Harry had told them how he heard Liam had gone skinny dipping with Sophia in the lake, a fact that Liam has been steadily denying since they first questioned them. So the question leaves Liam less than impressed, if the scowl on his face is anything to go by.

“Fine. Yes, I have been.”

“Ha, we knew it,” Harry shouts, tossing his fist in the air.

“Yeah, well, haha. Glad you wasted a question on that,” Liam mutters. “Zayn, truth or dare?”

“Dare,” Zayn says in his slow lazy drawl, leaning back against Niall’s bed and waiting patiently for his fate.

He knows that he’s safe, knows that Liam isn’t going to give him anything too wild. And true to form, Liam’s dare is pretty vanilla, telling Zayn to record a song and upload it to YouTube later in the week. It’s not even really a dare, more like Liam trying to force Zayn to see that other people – aside from his friends and family – find him talented.

The dares stay fairly vanilla for a while, Harry puts on one of Niall’s mom’s slips and is forced to wear it for the remainder of the questions, Liam has to put his shoes on after Louis stuffs them with mayonnaise. Niall’s dared to dye his hair lilac, while Zayn has to bleach his – not tonight, since they don’t have the products, which is why Louis thinks the dares are shit. And Zayn’s shaved Harry’s initials into his thigh hair, while Louis had to call his mom and pretend that he was in trouble with the cops – his mom had mostly sighed at him, annoyed but not surprised, as she asked what he had done.

The truths were even less revealing, as they forced Harry to admit that he fantasizes about Zayn’s dad, and how Niall was in fact the one who stole Harry’s favorite shirt, while Liam admits that he’s thought about someone else when having sex, but chickened out on admitting who that someone was. Louis tells them that it was him who put glue in Liam’s hat, and switched Harry’s hairspray to kitchen oil.

But after finishing off a case of beer, Louis thinks things are bound to get interesting among them.

“All right, Zayn, your turn,” Niall says, crawling to his knees. “Truth or dare?”

“Truth,” picks Zayn, crossing his feet at the ankle as Niall looks like he’s plotting, tapping his chin in thought. His eyes connect with Louis’ for a second and there’s a fire behind them, and Louis’ mouth drops open, scrambling into a sit because that’s devious if he ever saw it and that couldn’t be good for anyone.

“Zayn, have you ever hooked up with a boy before?”

Next to him, Zayn swallows, rubbing his hands on his jeans. “No, I don’t think I have.”

“Noted,” Niall says, winking at him.

“Right, um Harry,” Zayn says, asking him if he picks truth or dare.

Louis ignores what’s happening around him to focus on Niall. He’s not looking at Louis, not at first, but Louis is drilling holes into the side of his head with his eyes, so it’s really only a few short minutes of staring until Niall finally turns to look at him, eyes wide. He blinks, head cocked to the side as Harry shouts something out the window. Recognition seems to cross as his face as he grins, mouthing to let him handle it, operation ‘Louis’ future’ or something like that.

“Louis, it’s your turn,” Liam says and Louis blinks, nodding. “Truth or dare?”

“Truth, I guess?” Louis says, head cocked to the side as he watches Niall mouth shout at him, telling him to pick dare as he mimes killing Louis.

“Right, um,” Liam stops, blinking as Niall leans in and whispers something in his ear that makes Liam frowning. “I’m not saying tha-ow,” Liam mumbles, rubbing at his ribs. “Fine. Louis, if you could hook up with anyone in this room, who would it be?”

Next to Liam, Niall is laughing behind his hand, like he’s struck gold with that question. And he hasn’t, because Louis doesn’t want to hook up with any of them. Maybe he’s try it, given the right circumstances, but he’s hardly going to shout that he’d like to try hooking up with his best friends to see if there are other feelings there, at least not in a setting like this. But Niall has a glimmer of mischief in his eyes that tells Louis this is the perfect time to test out those feelings, or at least he seems to think so.

“Um, I’m not sure,” says Louis, hoping that his tone is light and wistful even, maybe, anything but nervous and unsure. “You’re all wonderful candidates, but um. I think I’m gonna have to use my chicken on this one, so I don’t make any of you jealous.”

Niall scowls at that answer, barring his teeth slightly as he grumbles under his breath. Louis shrugs at him as he asks if he wants truth or dare, and Niall spits out truth. His brain is swimming, unfocused, so he asks something stupid, something that he doesn’t care about, an answer that he wouldn’t worry about any other time. Niall answers and the game goes on, Niall asking Harry, who asks Liam, who asks Zayn, who asks Niall again, because he’s still muttering under his breath and Zayn doesn’t understand why, doesn’t know that it’s not because he wants a turn, but because he’s annoyed his scheme isn’t going according to plan.

“Louis, truth or dare,” Niall asks and Louis blinks, snapping back to reality as he realizes his mind drifted off long enough to miss Niall’s turn.

“Uh, dare,” Louis mumbles, thinking that’s the safer bet when Niall is trying to force him to confess his possible-maybe-almost feelings.

“Ah, lovely,” Niall says, grinning as he shifts up to his knees. “I dare you to pick one person to lock yourself in my brother’s closet with.”

Louis blinks. So dare wasn’t the safer option.

“Hurry up, time is ticking. And you have to go through four more turns before you get another chicken. What a shame,” mumbles Niall, frowning at him with no sympathy behind it.

Louis thinks that this is it, the moment where his body shrivels up and leaves this planet behind. Because there’s two roads that he could, like those cautionary tales parents tell about the forks in the road and choosing your right path, or whatever. He can pick honestly, choose Zayn and know that they’ll probably sit in the closet and talk like nothing could happen between them, much like they’ve been doing for their entire friendship. Or, it could go with himself in Zayn’s lap. But that’s an entirely different road that he won’t cross until he’s inside the closet.

But there’s also the other option, the safer one where he picks Liam or Harry and tells them about how awful and atrocious Niall is. Because there’s no way that he’s going to pick Niall, he’ll talk Louis’ ear off, complaining about the fact that Louis isn’t playing along and he’s making everything difficult.

And well, Liam did just get into an argument with his girlfriend, so he’ll want to talk about that. And Harry’s been flirting with – translation: hooking up with in secret – a girl named Daisy, so he’ll probably want to leave smug hints about how great his sex life is, which is always annoying when Louis is practically celibate. So yeah, they’re both shitty opens.

Oh well, fuck it, Louis thinks. “Alright, come on, Zayn,” he says, voice strained as he stands up.

The grin on Niall’s face is blinding as they leave Niall’s room, moving down the hall to his other brother’s room. Niall follows, making sure they go into the tiny, cramped closet. Louis and Zayn are sharing leg space, their legs intertwined and tangled together, making it hard for Louis to know where he’s reaching in the dark as Niall closes the door.

“We’ll be back to get you soon,” he says and Louis hears something dragging across the floor and then the door creaks slightly, a tiny knocking noise before Niall speaks up again. “Make sure to make the most of it.”

Louis sighs and presses his hand against the door, feeling the heavy weight behind it, making it nearly impossible to open.

“Well, good thing I didn’t choose Niall since they’ve locked us in.”

Zayn snorts. “Sounds like Niall. No, actually it kind of sounds like Harry.”

“Sounds like me, I think you mean.”

Zayn laughs at that. “Yeah, it does.”

“So what do you think we have to do to get out of here?”

“Whatever will please Niall, I guess.”

Louis hums, resting his head against the wall and letting his eyes close. Now that he’s in here, trapped in the tiny space of the closet with Zayn’s knee digging into his thigh, he’s not sure what exactly he’s supposed to doing. Niall obviously had big plans for them, plans that he didn’t clue Louis in on, and plans that he should know to make sure he makes it out of this closet before he turns eighty-three, preferably.

“Do you have any idea what that would be?” Zayn asks. Louis sighs and shrugs, even though he knows that Zayn can’t see him. “It just seems like he’s plotting something, doesn’t it?”

“It does, yeah,” Louis mutters, swallowing as he wonders just how much Zayn knows. “But like, is it just normal Niall or…I don’t know, do you think there’s more to it?”

“More to it, I’d guess,” Zayn mumbles and Louis nods, because yeah, Zayn definitely knows something is going on.

“What do you think it is?”

Zayn breathes out slowly and Louis imagines him, shrugging because he doesn’t know, can see it against the backs of his eyes. But Louis thinks that he does know, only he’s not sure what or how far it goes, Zayn’s knowledge about Niall started asking intrusive questions, why he asked Louis to pick someone to go into a closet with. And he doesn’t understand most of Louis’ reasoning for picking Zayn, aside from knowing that he’ll have the ability to back out of it at any point, because what Zayn doesn’t know won’t hurt him, so he doesn’t have to know that Louis has been trying to figure out his feelings, feelings that he didn’t even know could be there until Eleanor and everyone else rejected him.

They sit in silence for a long time, both of them waiting patiently for their friends to come and let them out. It doesn’t happen, Niall, Liam, and Harry never come to unlock the door and let them out. Louis tries pushing on it, throwing his weight into it as best he can and nothing happens. Zayn doesn’t seem as bothered as Louis is; instead he’s sitting back, feet crossed at the ankle while Louis shouts out like a caged animal, screaming profanities at his friends.

“They’re not going to let us out,” Zayn says in a voice that’s far too calm and not enough enraged like Louis wants it to be. “Might as well stop slamming your shoulder into the door before you hurt yourself.”

“Think I already did,” Louis mumbles bitterly, rubbing at a sore spot of skin. “I’m going to do something to them when they’re sleeping. I’m not sure what yet, but I am. I will get revenge for this.”

“Have fun with that,” Zayn mutters. “They’re probably already sleeping.”

“Shit,” Louis curses, reaching out and banging his fist against the wall that he knows connects to Niall’s room, all in the vain hope that Niall’s head is on the other side of it and he can hear the noise and feel the vibrations of Louis’ hits.

“You’re awfully overdramatic, you know that?”

“And you’re not dramatic enough, did you know that?”

“Because I’m not lashing out on a door and the wall? I think I’ll live with myself.”

“We’re never getting out of here.”

“That’s you being overdramatic again,” Zayn sighs, stretching his leg out so his foot bumps into Louis’ thigh. “They’ll let us out, not even Niall’s this cruel. I’m sure Liam’s giving them shit about it.”

“Unless Liam is in on Niall’s plan.”

“No, I don’t think he is,” Zayn says and again it’s like he knows, like he’s aware of everything.

Louis’ heart pounds in his chest at the thought, wanting to know more about what Zayn knows, so he asks, in the simplest way that he can. “What makes you say that?”

Zayn sighs once more, like there’s a heavy weight on his shoulders. “I feel like you’re prodding me for info.”

“Might be.”

“What do you know?”

“I know that Niall planned this and he’s got ulterior motives. What do you know?”

“Might know the same thing.”

“Yeah?” Zayn asks, tugging on Louis’ pant leg, knuckles knocking against Louis’ anklebone, trying to get his attention. “Why’s he doing this for you?”

“What makes you think he’s doing anything for me?” Questions Louis, watching the way that Zayn shrugs in the dark, and Louis squints his eyes at him, because even though he can’t see him fully, he knows that there’s a smirk on Zayn’s face, knows that neither of them are just going to say it.

And Zayn seems to know the same thing, because he’s shifting around in the cramped space of their closet, feet dragging away from Louis as he sits up on his knees.

“Promise you’re not going to freak out,” Zayn says, pushing Louis’ leg out of his way as he steps in – crawls, more like – closer.

“I’m not one for freaking out, Malik.”

Zayn snorts and laughs at him, and it somehow sets him more at ease as he settles in front of Louis, hands resting on Louis’ thighs. And it’s not an uncomfortable position to be in, Louis finds.

Yeah…definitely not bad at all. Louis can think of situations where this could be bad, where his heart is hammering in his chest and his best friend is gripping onto his thigh, eyes wide in the dark. He can see it, but he doesn’t think that any part of him could ever find this situation anything other than…nice. Yeah, nice is a good word for it, Louis thinks, swallowing heavily as he waits.

“Freaking out?”

“Nope,” Louis mumbles, throat tight in anticipation. “Reckon Niall might have been trying to do us both a favor.”

“Yeah?”

“Unless I’m reading you being nearly in lap wrong, then yeah.”

Zayn laughs, his hand moving from Louis’ thigh to his shoulder, resting there, waiting. Louis blinks and wishes that he could see him, that Niall would have at least left the lights on in Greg’s room so the light could slip in underneath the door, creating a soft warm glow in the closet. But he can’t, so instead he can only hope that Zayn’s expression is like his own, a mixture of confusion and anticipation, hopeful of what’s to come.

And it’s better than Louis thought it would be, when Zayn’s breath fans out across his face. It sends a shiver down his spine, cause skin to break out in bumps as he waits.

“Freaking out?” Zayn asks, voice quiet.

Louis shakes his head, hoping that Zayn can feel the movement. Zayn pinches his shoulder before his head slides up the column of his neck, resting on his cheek softly.

And Louis has never been patient, not once in his life and he’s not about to start now, so he closes the distance, pressing his lips against Zayn’s. It’s everything that he thought it would be, or it would be, if he spent ages fantasizing about this, but since he hasn’t, Louis thinks that it might be better.

Zayn’s lips are soft and warm, a little bit wet, and they move against Louis’ slowly, tentatively, like he’s trying to get the most out of it. Louis feels his stomach dip, flip, and flutter all it once and he grips onto Zayn tighter because if he doesn't then he might float away, might lose himself completely to his moment, to Zayn.

Zayn pulls away first, ever so slightly, just enough that their foreheads press together, mouths centimeters apart.

“Wow,” Louis breathes out, startling a laugh out of Zayn. “That was—“

“Interesting,” Zayn finishes and Louis frowns, because it was a lot of things, but interesting makes it sound like a science experiment and less like…well. It was an experiment of sorts, so maybe interesting isn’t all that bad. “Guess Niall knew he was doing.”

“Guess the entire school knew what they were doing.”

“Yeah, I guess so.”

Louis sighs and wishes, definitely not for the first time, that he could see Zayn. He feels like now is important and he wants it. He needs it.

“What are you thinking about?” Zayn asks and Louis laughs.

“Thinking that I wish we had a light in here, actually.”

Zayn pulls away a bit, settling back on his feet against as his hands leaves Louis’ jaw. Louis hears movement, feels it a bit, until suddenly his eyes are snapping closed at the harsh light of Zayn’s phone, at the little flashlight on the back.

“Better?” He asks, setting it down on the ground on its side so that the light isn’t so bright. “Could have asked for that ages ago, you know.”

“I didn’t think you’d choose to sit in the dark.”

“I like the dark,” Zayn reasons, shrugging. “And besides, didn’t really want to see you freak out.”

“A light might have calmed me down a bit, though, just so you know.”

“I’ll file that away for future reference,” Zayn says and he makes like he’s going to move away but Louis stops him, wrapping his hands around Zayn’s waist and tugging him in closer, spreading his legs a bit wider to give Zayn more space. “My feet are asleep, Lou.”

“I’ve got a cramp in my thigh, so we’re even.” Zayn laughs and this time Louis can see him shake his head, can see the fondness in his eyes. “So now what?” He asks, because this is the furthest that he’s planned it and without help, he’s not sure he can stomach another week of bewilderment like he faced after Eleanor turned him down.

“I don’t know, you tell me.”

“No, come on, I kissed you. Now it’s your turn.”

“Alright,” Zayn says, leaning forward to press his lips against Louis’ once more. Louis can feel his smirk, the smug little bastard.

“That’s not what I meant,” Louis laughs against his lips, pinching his sides for good measure.

“I know what you meant.”

“Then help me out, please. I’m a bit hopeless at all of this, as I’m sure you know.”

“What do you want to know, Louis?”

Louis breathes out, shrugging, because really, he just wants to know where they go from here. Because it’s Zayn, his best friend that he’s kissed in this cramped little closet. But if Zayn were to ask for more, were to want more than just this moment in time, then Louis thinks he could give it to him. He’d like that, possibly.

“What does this mean?”

“Us kissing?”

“Yeah, what does it mean for you?”

Zayn shrugs, his body language making the decision seem lighter than his face is giving away. “Might mean a lot, I think. Maybe more so for me than you.”

Louis snorts. “Veto on that answer, you’re not allowed to assume my feelings.”

“Alright fine,” Zayn amends, rolling his eyes. “Same answer, minus the last bit. Better?”

“Yeah, better. And since this obviously means something more than seven hours in heaven or whatever the game is called—“

“Seven minutes in heaven.”

“—I think that we should also discuss where we go from here.”

“Where do you want to go?”

“What if,” Louis starts, wetting his lips, “What if we like, didn’t change anything?”

“What if we stayed friends, you mean?” Zayn asks, brows pulled together in confusion and possibly, definitely a little bit of hurt at the implication that nothing could come of this.

“No, not just friends. But like, just us. What if we stayed just like us, but like…exclusively us. Like, I promise not to make the school think that we’re more than friends still, only this time I’ll let them know. And like, you could promise the same?”

Zayn looks at him, head cocked to side for a beat longer before he laughs, dropping his head down forward to rest on Louis’ shoulder. “You’re an idiot, you know that? An absolute idiot.”

“Your exclusive idiot though, right?”

Zayn shakes his head against Louis’ shoulder, breathing out softly against his neck. “Yeah, alright. Not the best offer I’ve ever had, but I’ll take it.”

Louis grins, tickling Zayn’s sides gently. “Good, now kiss me. We’re trapped in this closet forever, we might as well make the most of it.”

“You’ve got such a way with words, honestly,” Zayn drawls, sitting up slowly, but he’s smiling at Louis, already running his fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck and Louis already knows that he won.

>>>>>>>>

Louis makes Zayn wait until Monday to tell Niall, Liam, and Louis what happened in closet, after all, they’re the three idiots who got to sleep on nice, comfortable surfaces while Zayn and Louis had to figure out how to lie down in the closet together. Not like they got much sleep, but still. It’s the principle of the thing and Louis isn’t going to give Niall the satisfaction of knowing that his meddling worked, that it’s the only reason Zayn and Louis get to walk into the school on Monday morning holding hands, to the surprise of absolutely no one, much to Louis’ irritation.

Though, he’s sure he can come up with something to surprise them all.


End file.
